Merci Suárez Changes Gears

The scene opens with Merci lamenting her sixth-grade change of fate as she sits, sweating, in Mr. Patchett’s health and PE class. She is at Seaward Pines Academy, her private school. She is grateful that the class period is being interrupted for class photos, as the next chapter in the cue is called “I’m OK, You’re OK: On Differences as We Develop” (1). Her class is escorted out into the blistering Florida summer heat, and Merci must persuade the resident mean girl Edna to join her in an illicit stroll through on-campus construction sites in order to avoid standing in line in the heat. None of the other girls will go along with Merci’s idea until Edna agrees to it. Merci carefully sizes Edna up, wondering if the girl has gotten taller since Merci last saw her in June. Edna’s blush and mascara are new additions, though.

When the group of sixth-grade girls successfully makes their detour, led by Edna, and bursts into the gym, the girls find themselves in a crowd of ninth graders. Edna searches in vain for her brother Roli: He has taken his fancy senior portrait elsewhere already and cannot come to her aid.